The study of religious or heroic legends and tales. One constant rule of mythology is that whatever happens amongst the gods or other mythical beings was in one sense or another a reflection of events on earth. Recorded myths and legends, perhaps preserved in literature or folklore, have an immediate interest to archaeology in trying to unravel the nature and meaning of ancient events and traditions.

This is a (yet another!) spin off thread, this time from the Ainu/Anu one.

I thought it would be a good idea to try to trace the origins of the Egyptian goddess Isis and the Sumerian goddess Ishtar, as I've been having the feeling that they are one and the same goddess for some time.

If we can establish this link, it will bring us a step closer to finding out who built the pyramids, and who the Egyptians and the Sumerians really were.

One thing I've found is that Isis The Heavenly Cow was developed out of another, more ancient Egyptian heavenly cow of the name of Hathor.

Hathor is depicted as almost identical to Isis.

This is Isis:

and this is Hathor

So the only difference between them is that Hathor's headwear comprises horns and the sun disc (known as the Eye of Hathor) instead of Isis's throne chair.

And this is a cow depiction of Hathor from the Papyrus of Ani.

So with 'Ani' we are getting closer to An, and the Sumerian Ishtar is the daughter of the Sumerian god An.

Egyptian mythology, Hathor (Pronounced Hah-Thor) (Egyptian for house of Horus) was originally a personification of the Milky Way, which was seen as the milk that flowed from the udders of a heavenly cow.

Hathor was an ancient goddess, and was worshipped as a cow-deity from at least 2700 BC,[1] during the second dynasty. Her worship by the Egyptians goes back earlier however, possibly, even by the Scorpion King who ruled during the Protodynastic Period before the dynasties began. His name, Serqet, may refer to the goddess Serket.

The two figures flanking the top of both sides of the Narmer Palette are interpreted as images of the cow goddess. The palette is among the earliest carved religious images known from the Egyptian culture.

Last edited by Ishtar on Wed Jul 16, 2008 5:41 am, edited 1 time in total.

Both the Egyptian and Sumerian languages were picture languages and so we cannot be absolutely sure of how they pronounced their words.

But this recent thinking from Wiki shows that Isis is now thought to have been pronounced ee-ser. This brings us a lot closer to Ishtar, especially if the 'h' was silent, as it certainly can often be in Sanskrit.

Anyway, here's a Wiki quote on the pronunciation of Isis.

The English pronunciation used for this deity, /ˈaɪ.sɪs/, is an Anglicized pronunciation of the Greek name, Ίσις, which itself changed the original Egyptian name by the addition of a final "-s" because of the grammatical requirements of Greek noun endings.

The Egyptian name was recorded as ỉs.t or ȝs.t and meant "(She of the) Throne." However, the true Egyptian pronunciation remains uncertain because their writing system did not always feature vowels.

Based on recent studies which present us with approximations based on contemporary languages and Coptic evidence, the reconstructed pronunciation of her name is *ʔŪsat (ooh-saht).

Later, the name survived into Coptic dialects as "Ēse" or "Ēsi," as well as in compound words surviving in names of later people like "Har-si-Ese," literally "Horus, son of Isis."

Actually, I must admit I thought this was a well established idea - Isis and Ishtar being one and the same (along with er... Ashtoroth and Astarte), though I've no idea where I came across that. Probably some dubious magazine in the pre-brain-working days (deduced by my presently not having the faintest idea of who Ashtoroth or Astarte may have been). Anyway, it's an interesting subject sure enough, so please continue.

Yes, for me too .. it's just been one of those vague ideas I've had swimming around in the fetid pool of my grotesque Dali-esque subconscious for many years. I just figured it was time to bring it out in the light of day, give it a brisk rub down and then examine it from every angle to see if it stands up.

Ishtar wrote:Both the Egyptian and Sumerian languages were picture languages and so we cannot be absolutely sure of how they pronounced their words.

Ignoramus Question # 1: I thought the Egyptian had turned out to be strongly phonetic - each pictogram representing a syllable or somesuch, or is it that, if this is the case, we STILL aren't quite sure of what these syllables were?

"Man is a marvellous curiosity. When he is at his very, very best he is sort of a low-grade nickel-plated angel; at his worst he is unspeakable, unimaginable; and first and last and all the time he is a sarcasm."